Phoenix is an outer space-themed, fixed shooter video game similar to Taito’s Space Invaders and released in 1980. According to Centuri’s Joel Hochberg, the game was licensed from “a smaller Japanese developer.” Amstar Electronics (which was located in Phoenix, Arizona) licensed the game to Centuri for manufacture in the United States. Taito released the game in Japan.
The Phoenix mothership is one of the first video arcade game bosses to be presented as a separate challenge. This was before the term boss was coined.